With four dock applications pending at Cape Roger Curtis and others still outstanding on other parts of the Island, the “dock” issue is back on the table of Bowen’s municipal council.
At Monday’s council meeting, Stop the Docks campaigner Doug Hooper urged the new mayor and council to pay attention and give due diligence to its actions on regarding dock applications.
“If the municipality is only commenting on whether these docks meet the regulations stated under the Land Use Bylaw, then they are not doing their research on whether this meets the Official Community Plan or public interest,” says Hooper. “What we found when we got directly engaged with the Transport Canada, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the BC Ministry of Environment, is that they do not review dock applications. They do not review environmental impacts or navigational hazards, for example, unless things are brought to their attention.”
Hooper says that the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources (FLNR) simply sends issues back to the authority whose responsibility they consider it to be.
“Even if all 1,400 people who had signed the Stop the Docks Petition had sent a letter in to FLNR, their office would have simply sent those letters back to the Municipality of Bowen Island,” says Hooper.
Mayor and council discussed the issue later in the meeting, referring to a staff report on the subject by the planning department.
“The report from the planning department raises so many issues,” said Mayor Skeels. “Basically it recommends that council request that the province extend the deadline for referrals, hold a Committee of the Whole meeting to discuss the dock bylaw and next steps, and get legal involved…”
In a later interview, Skeels said that while the public comment period for the dock applications pending at the Cape ended on December 4, the municipality is a “referral agency” and can ask the applicant for more and better information. Once the Municipality feels all necessary questions have been answered, the clock starts to tick on getting back to the province about whether or not it will support the application.
“The Integrated Land Management branch of FLNR relies on us to make a reasoned statement of public interest. Typically, if we don’t support the application, they won’t make the lease. But they can say that the decision is arbitrary and over-ride it,” says Skeels. “There are different vehicles we could use to justify our decision if we are not supportive of an application, but our planner thinks that we have a stronger case if we can refer to a bylaw in these decisions. So that’s what we intend to investigate further.”
At the end of council’s discussion on the issue, they voted unanimously to request that the province extend the deadlines for the referral of comments in relation to the existing dock applications at the Cape. They also agreed to ask legal council to review all relevant bylaws and regulations that are pertinent to dock applications, and, that staff and council should meet with Stop the Docks to better understand the issues.
“I’d like to get this off our desk if at all possible,” said Mayor Skeels towards the end of the discussion. “Let’s make sure we’ve got all the proper information, before we start making decisions.”
